Posted by By UCHE USIM on
An Abuja-bound Chanchangi B727-200 aircraft Tuesday afternoon lost a blade of one of its engines some minutes after take off from the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
An Abuja-bound Chanchangi B727-200 aircraft Tuesday afternoon lost a blade of one of its engines some minutes after take off from the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The incident, which sent shock waves down the spines of the passengers, Daily Sun learnt, forced the pilot to return to base.
The plane which took off at about 1.45p.m was said to be carrying about 200 passengers, and had one of the engines exploding barely 25 minutes after take off.
One of the passengers, who is a brother of the former Inspector General of Police, Bishop Halleluyah Ehindero, told Daily Sun: "We all thought the end had come. We started praying."
The pilot managed to land safely at about 3p.m.
Confirming the incident, the Public Relations Manager of the airline, Olu Balogun, said the pilot did an air return in the interest of the passengers.
He said the aircraft could have made the trip to Abuja since it had two engines still functioning.
"We lost a blade of one of the engines of our B727-200 few minutes after take off from Lagos airport. Our pilots have been trained to do an air return whenever they find anomaly. It's a safety step. All the passengers have been flown to Abuja as we had another aircraft on the ground that served as a back up," he said.
Expectedly, safety officers from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have moved in to unravel the true cause of the incident.
An NCAA source who spoke with Daily Sun on phone said: "We've learnt of the incident. It was an air return and such steps are taken in the interest of safety. We're on it."
An air return is a development whereby a pilot returns to the airport of departure when he notices that something is amiss in the functioning of the aircraft. Such a decision is the requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the global umbrella body governing aviation.